This invention relates to the art of transporting and storing bottled water, being particularly useful in conjunction with large five-gallon water bottles as employed in the business of supplying drinking water contained in such large bottles.
More specifically the invention is directed to an improved water bottle crate particularly adapted to facilitate transporting and handling five-gallon water bottles, such bottles having a variety of external configurations and therefore requiring a bottle crate suitable for accommodating this variety of bottle configurations.
The generally recognized or standard five-gallon water bottle is characterized by having a generally cylindrical neck portion which flares outwardly into the main body of the bottle. The other end of the bottle is usually formed into a somewhat bulbous flat bottom.
These five-gallon water bottles generally have an external configuration for the main body of the bottle which provides one or more circumferential ribs on the bottle exterior. These circumferential ribs perform a strengthening function for the wall of the bottle body and also can be of assistance during handling of the filled five-gallon bottle. The commercially available designs of these five-gallon water bottles having one or more circumferential ribs have a variety of distinctively different external rib work configurations. The differing rib work makes design of a universally adapted water bottle crate to accommodate differently configured bottles a problem, a problem which must be taken into consideration in conjunction with crate construction.